Girls in ICT Day: ITU laments gender gap, advocates STEM
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
United Nations arm in charge of global communications, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is worried about the rising gender gap globally and has asked for measures to bridge the gap.
This is coming as the world, yesterday, marked International Girls in ICT Day. Every April 25 is used to celebrate girls in ICT. ITU Secretary-General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, in her speech to mark the day, said: “Today, as we mark International Girls in ICT Day, we stand at the crossroads of a pivotal era. Less than a quarter of all ministers for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are women. Only 32 out of 165 ICT regulators are led by women.
“In the private sector, women technologists occupy less than a third of positions, where they face a 21 per cent pay gap. These are not mere statistics, but a call to action. We must prepare young women and girls to become tomorrow’s visionary women leaders.”
According to ITU, that is why this year’s theme is: “Leadership”. Bogdan-Martin noted that over a decade ago, ITU launched Girls in ICT to inspire young women to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
According to her, disparities impact everything, stressing that lack of equal representation can result in flawed product and service design, bias in machine learning, exclusionary policy and decision-making.
ITU Secretary-General, therefore, called on the international community to encourage more young women to take up STEM careers and bridge the digital divide once and for all.
“Let’s celebrate, support and inspire our Girls in ICT today and every day. To all young women and girls: your potential is unlimited, your ideas are powerful, and the STEM world is waiting for you,” she added.
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